The question raised by Ezekiel and the sisters is the same: Is God present in Israel's exile or in Lazarus' death? If you had asked the Israelites, many would have answered "No!" God had abandoned them to their enemies. Their lives were over, and Israel was nothing more than a pile of dead dry bones. Or the sisters, Mary and Martha, who strained to see Jesus at his friend's funeral, went home knowing that Jesus never bothered to show up at their brother's burial. If you were to ask exiled peoples in the world today or relatives at a funeral, "Is God here?" many would respond, "No!"

The Scriptures are very clear and forceful that in times of crisis, many people feel the absence of God. There is pain, loss, brokenness and death in all of our lives. Human beings get hurt and often times struggle to sense life in a death-filled world. God doesn't casually drop by and pat us on the back and tell us everything is okay. Ezekiel was really in exile and captivity and his nation had been destroyed. Jesus was really late and did not arrive in time for the funeral.

Most of us, at sometime in our lives, have looked over a valley of dry bones or waited anxiously for a Jesus who never arrived on time. These dry bones may be a dream never fulfilled. You pleaded, worked, struggled and prayed for God's help and intervention, yet you still fell short.

These dry bones may be a broken marriage. Everything was so wonderful and romantic at your wedding, only to become brittle and broken. Little by little, death began to consume your relationship. You called out for Jesus to come to you in counseling, prayers, honesty and church. But he was too late as you walked away from the lawyer's burial service. Or these dry bones could be a faith gone dead and hopeless. You watched your child die from some horrible disease or your father turn into some kind of Alzheimer vegetable. Where is there hope in God as your child literally wastes away or as you change your father's diapers?

The Scriptures are very concrete in their understanding of hopelessness and despair. But painful as this may be, healing begins when we take a long hard look at our bones and stinking graves. For unless we acknowledge the dry bones of our lives and the stench of death's powerful smell, there will always be an empty rattling in our souls as Death laughs his way through our lives. But we Christians proclaim that Death has not won and his laughter will be silenced by the power of hope. God's breath suffocates Death.

With God's breath, these dry dead bones will be brought back to life. God will see to it that one day Israel will return to her own land. The people of God will resurrect into a new creation as the new Israel. "Thus says the Lord God, T am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel'" (Ezek., 37:12). Ezekiel knew and believed that God's breath suffocated Death.